So as some of you may know, I'm currently going to a university that is about 5 hours from home, and thus my briks. I knew I wanted to bring something small with me as a desktop model, and also just to play around with if I felt the need to build, so I brought two things: my Juggerknight/Dreadknight/Dreadknite and a microscale sailing ship.

Isn't it cute? Anyway, last knight I got bored of doing an assignment and decided to take a whack at making something else out of the parts. This was pretty challenging considering the limited parts I had available.

There were two big limiting factors in this. The first was that there was only one part that was symmetrical and had two studs on top. This may sound oddly specific, but if you look at the picture, you'll notice that the rest of the pieces are either studless, clips, or 1x1 parts. The second factor was those goddamn sail pieces. Two wing plates of different sizes, plus they were both left-side ones? What a pain that was.

Despite these severe limitations, I went for it anyway, because why do a lab report when you can build with Lego AMIRITE. I took the most obvious route at first, looking to make different boats. The only problem was that the way I had made the sails could only really fit one layout that made sense, and that was the original model. So I decided to make some boats that didn't have sails, and that's when something clicked. And it was beautiful.

Steam! Of course! This opened up a whole new realm of possibilities, since the sail pieces wouldn't actually take up any space on the hull. I took this idea and went crazy with it. That first one was just a plain old steam ship.

This one is presumably a faster ship, with a triple stack and a big, visible boiler.

Of course, being a BrikWarrior, I couldn't pass up the opportunity to make a ship hunter with a huge hull-piercing cannon.

I'm proud of this one because I was actually able to use every piece of the original model, and that double point at the front looks really cool IMO.

After doing all of those boats, I noticed that they all had pretty much the exact same base. So I tried to alter the hull shape. This is where the whole 1x2 problem surfaced.

Fortunately, the two 1x1 technic bricks let me create a 2x2 connection, and I managed to make a boat that looked significantly different from the others.

Okay, so I'd made a lot of steam ships, and decided to try making something that didn't have the stacks sticking out of the top. And this is where I had another revelation about the sail pieces.

Yes! Thanks to those pieces, I was able to make a speedboat look like it actually had some speed. Now the gears were really turning, so I thought it was time to make something that wasn't a boat.

I apologize for the absolutely horrible photos, but my phone is all I have with me to take them. That aside, I wanted to post this as a testament to just how limitless building with Lego really is. With just 26 parts, I was able to make 11 different models. Just imagine what could be made if that number were doubled!

Lessons learned from this:1) Never underestimate the power and importance of the 1x2 brick.2) No matter how useless a piece may seem, you can do something with it.3) Sometimes building small is way more fun than building big.

I hope you enjoyed this little... something, and feel free to try it out and post your results here!

The reason why? This is my basic build strategy as even with my "Large" collection (large by the standards of most people I talk too, small by forum comparison) forces me to seek variations and solutions like this in every model I build. LDD forces me to build by aesthetics - the look and feel of a MOC, but building like this forces constraints onto the builder; so you are forced to think outside the box for different solutions for the look and feel of what you want to build.

Aoffan, I know your home collection is five hours away but if you have the ability to get enough briks together for a minifig sized creation; say a small vehicle or along those lines - try this challenge again because your results so far, are awesome.

The Shadowscythe wrote:I love this thread and I wish I could sticky it.

The reason why? This is my basic build strategy as even with my "Large" collection (large by the standards of most people I talk too, small by forum comparison) forces me to seek variations and solutions like this in every model I build. LDD forces me to build by aesthetics - the look and feel of a MOC, but building like this forces constraints onto the builder; so you are forced to think outside the box for different solutions for the look and feel of what you want to build.

Aoffan, I know your home collection is five hours away but if you have the ability to get enough briks together for a minifig sized creation; say a small vehicle or along those lines - try this challenge again because your results so far, are awesome.

Wow, thanks! This is really fun to do, and I do it with every set I buy. If you like this kind of stuff, you should definitely try to pick up some of the small Creator sets at the store (or any size really), as they tend to be a lot more about what you can build rather than what the instructions tell you to build. I mean, you can still build other stuff with the action-theme sets, but the pieces tend to be a lot more specialized. The whole point of the creator sets is to build a lot of different things out of them, so the parts tend to be more versatile.

I do have my Juggerknight/Dreadknite with me, so once I replicate it LDD so I can rebuild it, I'll definitely give it a shot.

So I went back home for reading week, and built a couple of cute little reindeer one night. I brought them back with me as desktop models, and started fiddling around with them today while procrastinating. I only built two alternate models, because I convinced myself to get to work after that (although I still haven't gotten back to work).